Something to Be Grateful For
by Lady Elena Dawson
Summary: Ezra spends Thanksgiving with Aria's family. Fluffy one-shot.


**A/N: Happy Thanksgiving, readers! Here's a little something I've been working on for the holidays. I'll try to get to my other stories soon! In the meantime, enjoy!**

* * *

**Something to Be Grateful For**

It was the early hours of Thanksgiving Day, and Aria was already up and energized with a giant bag of groceries in her arm as she fumbled for her boyfriend's apartment key with her other hand. When she finally managed to get it out without dropping any of the bag's contents, she exhaled in relief and unlocked the door, where she was met by a rather chilly single room.

"Why is it so freezing in here?" she complained, though lightheartedly, while setting down the groceries. However, instead of being welcomed by her rise-and-shine boyfriend, she was astounded to find him still in bed. Putting her hands on her hips, she studied him for a few seconds just to see if he was really asleep or not. By the way he laid like a dead lump under the covers, she assumed he was.

With a devious smirk on her face, Aria clapped her hands and exclaimed, "Time to get up!" Impulsively she pulled back his covers and was momentarily paralyzed by mock horror until she realized that the only way she would stop laughing was if she gagged herself.

Ezra grumbled disapprovingly and shivered as he groped for the warm covers, only to find that Aria had really yanked them completely off. Of course, he'd completely forgotten his choice of sleepwear, and contained slapping himself over the face.

"Really, Ezra?" Aria giggled less hysterically than before. "_Turkey _boxers? And I thought your Christmas ones were bad! No, this is _true _novelty!"

Ezra chose to ignore her and get straight to the point. "What are you doing here so early?"

Strutting back into the kitchen, Aria began to unload the bag. "Don't you remember?" she asked, slightly disappointed that he didn't. "We were going to cook a dish for tonight's Thanksgiving dinner with my family."

"Oh yeah," Ezra mumbled in an epiphany. "A hard, complicated, vegetarian one."

Aria snorted at Ezra's unenthusiastic response. "Come _on,_" she exaggerated, hoping to raise his spirits. "It's really not that bad. Plus, you don't have to worry about food poisoning from any kinds of meat."

"But there are eggs and salmonella," Ezra counteracted while he lazily pulled himself out of bed, stretching his legs.

Sighing, Aria placed the package of eggs on the counter and sat next to him, wrapping her arms around him and placing her chin on his shoulder. "How about we make a deal?" she suggested in an attempt to get him to cook, whether it be now or later.

"Hmm?" he moaned, rubbing his eyes in an effort to wake himself up and start the day.

"We can spend the next hour just being lazy in bed _if_, and only if, you cook that dish with me afterwards."

Another hour in bed? Ezra couldn't say no to that! "Deal!" he cried out and fell back on the bed. While he dropped, he grabbed Aria's waist and pulled her down, squealing, with him. "And you're not allowed to leave," he murmured as she tried to slither out of his grasp.

Eventually she stopped writhing around and relaxed. In mock anger, she groaned, "Fine, I'll stay."

"Good," Ezra said, then kissed her on the nose. "Because that was a part of the deal."

And this time Aria didn't even protest; instead she snuggled closer to him and let her eyes flutter shut for those few minutes of bliss.

…

When Aria woke up an hour later, the fuzzy covers had been pulled back on the bed and she was cuddled in the same position next to Ezra, who was apparently wide awake. Rolling her eyes, Aria pushed away from him a little bit so that she could stretch and asked like it was the most nonchalant thing in the world, "Were you watching me sleep?"

"Only for a few minutes, I swear." She glared at him. "Okay, maybe more than that. But you're just so peaceful looking, and I know you don't want to admit it but this day is really stressing you out."

"Well, why wouldn't it be?" she complained. "My own father who hates your whole being invited you to Thanksgiving!" Before she and Ezra were to head out to dinner with her friends later tonight, they were attending the typical Montgomery Thanksgiving that consisted of two main things: meat for the boys and something grown out of the ground (as Mike put it) for the women.

"Aria," Ezra tried to soothe her, nudging her close to him again and nuzzling the top of her head. "Everything's going to be fine."

They laid like that, Aria squished comfortably in Ezra's arms while her mind wandered, until she noticed the time. "We need to start cooking!" she exclaimed, and managed to pry herself from Ezra and jump out of the bed.

"Yay," Ezra mumbled in sarcastic exuberance as her dented form disappeared from next to him.

"It was a part of the deal," Aria reminded him in sing-song. _Of course it was._

Ezra had no idea how he did it, but in the next half hour he was standing wide-awake next to Aria trying his best to chop some carrots without seriously injuring himself. He watched as she effortlessly moved the knife and had a pile of diced carrots within five seconds; meanwhile, it took him a good two minutes to cut up one. This year Aria wanted to make a different style of a French cuisine, and Ezra hoped for her sake that he didn't mess it up for her.

"Doubting yourself, Mr. Fitz?" she piped up as though she had read his thoughts.

"No," Ezra scoffed. "Not at all. I'm just taking my time, you know…because we don't have anywhere to be for another few hours…"

Aria was skeptical and, in Ezra's knowledge, had boyfriend-reading powers. "So you _are _nervous," she replied. _Darn it, _Ezra swore in his mind. "About burning down this apartment or for tonight?"

"Um, both?" Ezra wasn't really one-hundred-percent sure how to answer that rather simple question. "At least if I lose my apartment, it won't matter because your dad will murder me before the night is over anyway."

"That's so not true," Aria argued, though she wasn't as convinced as she should have been. "Okay, maybe that _is _true, _but_—I said but—if that happens, I'll give you mouth-to-mouth to bring you back to life. Maybe when my dad sees that he'll keel over and you'll never have to worry about him again."

"Wow, that's…morose." Ezra crinkled his nose, but then he realized what he'd lost by saying that. "But not the mouth-to-mouth part!"

"Mhmm," Aria hummed. "Too late. I'll just let you die, then. Or convince my mother to do CPR on you."

"God, Aria, you're on fire today." Ezra continued to talk in order to dispel the thought of Ella giving him mouth-to-mouth. He'd wake up and be out the door before that ever happened.

"I'm just really hungry right now," she explained. Typically she got wittier the emptier her stomach was. She set down her knife and faced the fridge. "Do you have anything to eat?" Opening the fridge, she picked up the first thing she saw: a rather furry lime. "Other than a spoiled lime?"

"Hey," Ezra protested. "That fruit is special."

"Why?" she asked curiously, then smirked. "Because I petted it? Do you keep everything I touch?"

"No…," Ezra mumbled. When she smacked him on the arm, he jumped back and put his arms up in peace. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding! I really don't."

The two got back to work, shoving each other playfully from time to time. There was a huge sigh of relief from Ezra when they finally placed the dish that had taken him blood, sweat, and tears (metaphorically, of course) in the oven. "Phew!" he said, wiping his brow. "I'm so glad that's over!"

Aria grabbed her keys off of Ezra's counter and headed towards the door. "Thanks to that comment, I'm crossing the sexy dress off my choice of clothing for tonight."

"What?" Ezra whined. "What do I keep doing wrong?"

Aria laughed. "I'm joking! There is no sexy dress. My dad would lock me up."

"Oh." Ezra decided to keep his mouth shut this time.

"Well, I'm going to go get ready," Aria proclaimed while shrugging her jacket on. "Remember, take it out in an hour."

"Right. An hour." Ezra prayed to the gods of all cultures that he wouldn't forget. Good thing his smoke detector worked.

With that, Aria slipped out of the apartment and prayed for the exact same thing.

…

Approximately an hour and fifteen minutes later, Aria clacked to Ezra's door in her black heels and fumbled for the key in her purse. She paused and lifted her nose, though, when a strange smell dissipated from the door in front of her. "Oh no," she groaned, pulled out the key, and burst the door open.

"Ezra!" she cried out and ran to the smoking oven. Whipping it open, she lunged for the oven mitts and struggled to pull the large dish out. Thankfully, it wasn't burned to a crisp. She set it down, closed the oven with her hip, and ripped off the gloves, the whole while burning holes into Ezra, who was casually watching the TV.

"Why are you just sitting there?" she yelled annoyingly. "Didn't you see the smoke?"

"Um…" Ezra bit his lip. "I might have…fallen asleep?"

"Unbelievable," she scoffed, but since the dish was still okay she shouldn't complain. Instead she changed the subject. "Is that what you're wearing?"

Ezra glanced down at his Hollis hoodie and jeans. "No." Suddenly, Aria recognized the hoodie he was wearing and cocked an eyebrow. "Isn't that the one I wear all the time?" she asked, hiding a giggle.

How many times was Ezra going to be embarrassed today? "Yes," he mumbled under his breath.

"Let me guess: it smells like me."

"It smells like both of us!" he defended himself.

"Unbelievable," Aria reiterated, this time followed by a laugh.

"Right back at you."

Aria glanced at his desk and strode over to it. "You should wear this," she suggested while lightly tugging the tie she'd given him for their first official date off of his chair. "It looks nice on you."

"I'm not the only one who's worn it," Ezra said suggestively.

"Are you trying to embarrass _me_ now?" She smiled. "I've got a lot more on you, Fitz. Don't even bother." She pulled the fabric through her fingers. "So are you going to wear this, or do you have a turkey tie to go with those boxers?"

Ezra got up from the couch and stood in front of her. "I think I'll wear this," he said, holding her hands and taking the tie from her. Then he intertwined his fingers with hers and looked into her anxious hazel eyes. "Tonight will be fine, remember?" As reassurance, he kissed her softly on the lips, and afterwards wrapped her in a comforting hug, thinking, Why did there have to be any other people in the world when all he needed was her?

…

At around four o'clock, Ezra stood in front of the Montgomery household, the cuisine along with a bouquet of flowers in his hands. It was a good thing, too, that he needed all his fingers because otherwise he would have been fumbling like the nervous man he was. Aria had told him exactly when to show up, even giving him credit for the vegetarian dish, which got him wondering: What if they expected _too_ much from him becausehe was able to cook something so complex?

There was some shuffling from the other side of the door, the click of the lock turning, and then he was face-to-face with Ella. "Ezra," she greeted him, surprisingly warm. "It's so nice for you to join us."

Aria appeared behind her, an excited wisp of a grin on her lips because he was there, and unfortunately for Ezra his heart started to race even more. "Thank you for inviting me here," he said, hoping beyond hope that his voice wouldn't crack. He handed the dish to Ella. "I brought food."

"Oh, that's so nice!" Ella inspected it and her eyes lit up approvingly. "And it's vegetarian!"

Then Byron came out from the shadows and hovered near the staircase, a constipated look on his face. Ezra ignored him by keeping his eyes on Aria and, biting his lip to contain a goofy smile, presented the bouquet he was hiding behind his back to Aria. "For you, miss," he said in a joking manner.

"O-oh," Aria gaped, accepting the roses. She'd practically planned the whole night from start to finish, and flowers definitely weren't on that list. "How sweet. Thank you." With her dad watching with his hawk eyes, Aria quickly pecked Ezra on the cheek then held his hand, squeezing it. The sour, constipated countenance on Byron worsened.

Byron stepped closer to his ex-wife and pointed at the dish in Ella's hands. "I'm assuming Aria helped you make that?" By the tone in his voice, he might as well have added, "In your apartment. Together. _Alone_."

"Yes, she did help," Ezra told truthfully. "She practically made the whole thing."

Aria slapped his arm. "He's just being modest." She hooked her arm around his elbow, finding herself not wanting to let go in fear that if she did, something catastrophic would happen.

To make the tension really build, Mike stomped down the stairs and joined the family. He stared Ezra down, his eyes saying, "You hurt my sister, and I'll come for you when you least suspect it." It was enough to make Ezra figuratively wet his pants.

Then, to save them from the drowning awkwardness, the bell rang. "That must be Zack!" Ella squealed. Her younger boyfriend had agreed to join the quirky family for dinner also.

"Good!" Aria chirped and tugged on Ezra's arm. "Come on, let's go set the table."

Yes, anything to save him from the looks of murder. "I'd love to do that."

When they were finally alone in the kitchen, Aria let out a pent-up breath and reached for the plates. Whenever she was worked up, she would obsessively start cleaning or pacing. "I'm sorry about my dad _and _my brother. Mike promised he wouldn't act like that!"

"Aria, it's okay," Ezra reassured her as he grabbed the forks and knives and followed her to the table. "I can deal with them. What I'm not sure about, though, is if I can fight off your mother's advances."

The joke seemed to clear the heavy air, and Aria found herself laughing. "My mother is not into you that way."

"We'll see about that."

Ella came rushing from around the corner. "Zack brought cake!" she gushed, placing both the cuisine and the cake next to all the other food she hadn't set on the table yet.

Aria leaned closer to Ezra and whispered, "Not into you." Then she playfully tugged on his tie before turning around and walking back to the kitchen.

When everything was set and everyone was settled at the dinner table, Aria stopped being so nervous. She actually enjoyed the friendly atmosphere—excluding the plastered façade of constipation on Byron's face—and scooped some mashed potatoes on her plate. Mike and Ella laughed at a joke Zack just told. _See?_ she thought. _There's nothing to worry about_.

That was, until Zack started talking to Ezra. "Where'd you and Aria meet?"

Aria could practically read the mind of her father sitting in front of her: "In a classroom the first day of school last year. He was her teacher, no biggie." She wasn't sure if "at a bar" was more suitable.

"At a restaurant last year," Ezra lied. It wasn't _completely _a fib. "We were both waiting for a table and we struck up a conversation."

"Oh?" Zack continued. "How long have you been dating?"

Ezra opened his mouth to respond, but Aria beat him to it. "Almost a year and a half now," she squeaked out. Ezra, sensing how tense she was, put a gentle hand on her thigh.

However, it provoked an explosive reaction. Aria, in paranoia, squealed and almost jumped out of her chair. Ezra had removed his hand, pretending like he did no wrong, and everyone stopped eating to stare at her.

"Um," Aria croaked. "There was a loose thread on my skirt and for a second it felt like there was a spider on my leg." It was real enough; it wasn't like she didn't have a rational fear of spiders.

After dinner, while she, Ezra, and Ella were cleaning up, Aria pulled out her phone and texted Ezra. His phone pinged and Ezra set his dish on top of the accumulating stack and pulled it out of his pocket.

It was a text from Aria. _That was quite a move back there at the dining table, _it read.

Ezra met Aria's eyes from across the kitchen and texted back, _You seemed nervous, and it's not like I could have put my arm around you._

_So you put your hand on my leg?_

_Why, does your dad have cameras under the table?_

_I wouldn't be surprised._

"What are you two doing?" Ella asked nonchalantly.

"Nothing," they both said in unison before returning to their chores. For Ezra, washing the dishes was better than watching the game with Aria's scary dad, menacing little brother, and mom's ignorant boyfriend.

After a brief pause, Ella spoke up. "It's very nice of you to clean up, Ezra. This is a perfect opportunity to tell you embarrassing stories about Aria."

Ezra's eyes lit up. Embarrassing stories about Aria? This could make up for the entire morning!

"Mom…," Aria giggled hesitantly.

"When Aria was ten, we asked her what she was grateful for and she said, 'My pig puppet Pigtunia for giving me advice on how to get Noel Kahn to like me.'" Aria's face reddened. Her mom just _had _to bring up her precious puppet, didn't she?

"Pigtunia was very special to me when I was a kid," she argued. "And so was Noel Kahn."

Ezra's skin prickled at the mention of Noel Kahn. "Should I be jealous?" he joked weakly. If it wasn't for his history with his old student, then he wouldn't have to pretend like the mention of his name didn't bother him.

"No. That was _ages _ago." Aria smiled at him while drying a plate.

"Aria was so hung up on him, though," Ella continued, making Aria want to duck under the table. "In second grade, she tried to give him Pigtunia as a 'token of her love.' It was so sweet!"

"Okay, Mom, enough with the puppet and Noel stories!"

"But I wasn't finished!" Ella replied gleefully, and went on telling how she had once taken Aria and Noel to a Malley's so they could "bond while eating each other's ice cream." "Aria's such a romantic," she concluded with a sigh. Aria could practically picture her dad's already scrunched-up nose twitching if he had been listening to this conversation.

When Ella left to check on the men, Aria cleared her throat and pretended like the past ten minutes hadn't happened. Unsurprisingly, Ezra came up next to her and wrapped an arm around her waist. "Shared each other's ice cream, huh? How come you never share anything with me?"

"I share a lot of things with you," she claimed. "We split that cronut that one time, remember?"

"Uh-huh. That 'one time.' My point exactly."

"Sometimes I let you eat my takeout."

"Yeah, and I'd be lucky to escape without your chopsticks leaving red marks on my skin."

Aria shrugged. "You never ask; you just take it."

"That's because you're too busy eating my order along with yours to notice that I'm just as hungry as you are."

Then Aria accused him of the one thing dreaded by men all over the planet. "Are you calling me fat?"

"What? No!"

Ella entered the kitchen. "What are you two talking about?"

"Oh, how I don't share anything and how I'm fat," Aria proclaimed.

"Well, that's not true at all!" Ella gasped. Aria sent a jaw-dropped Ezra a devious smile and turned back to her work.

Defeated, Ezra only mumbled inaudibly, "But she eats all my food."

…

Later that day, as everyone was splayed out on the couches and chairs surrounding the TV, Aria received a text from her friend Spencer. "The dinner's cancelled," she announced, throwing her phone on the table next to the sofa; she was so warm snuggled up next to Ezra, she didn't want to move.

"What a bummer," Ezra said while trying to avoid a sneaky glare from Byron. He definitely wasn't happy that his daughter was sharing a blanket with Ezra on _his_ couch.

Oblivious to her dad's scorching stares, Aria cuddled even closer to Ezra and plopped her head on his shoulder. "We can just stay in and watch a movie."

Mike's eyes lit up. "Can we watch—"

"No, we aren't watching _Die Hard_," Aria interrupted before Mike could finish. Mike's nose wrinkled.

"Well, we aren't watching one of your sappy Nicholas Sparks ones," he retorted.

"I don't watch Nicholas Sparks!" Aria claimed. Everyone just stared and blinked at her. "Sometimes."

"How about we watch a classic?" Ella suggested.

Mike began, "How about—"

But Aria beat him to it. "No, Mike, we aren't watching _The Godfather _either."

"What about _Star Wars_?" Ezra brought up casually, but secretly knowing that it was one of Byron's favorites.

Surprisingly, Byron said, "I like that idea," and Zack and Mike seemed pleased too. Though _Star Wars _didn't top Aria's preferred list (whenever she brought up the new ones because she thought the actor who played Anakin was so hot, Ezra would go off on a rant), it at least got Ezra and her dad to agree on _something_—which was, to say the least, a miracle.

"_Star Wars _it is then!" Ella piped up, retrieved the special edition box set Byron worshipped, and popped in the disc. Outwardly, Aria adjusted her body so that the circulation wasn't being cut off from her arm like it was before, but inwardly she knew she was doing that mostly so that if she fell asleep she wouldn't wake up to half a numb body.

After a few heated arguments between Byron, Mike, Ezra, and Zack, the movie ended and so did a rather uneventful night. However, halfway through the film Aria's head had slid limply down Ezra's chest, and he realized she had fallen asleep as expected. Right now she was curled up under the soft blanket, her head resting on Ezra's lap. Byron had had to talk Mike out of doing something insane—like drawing on his sister's face with marker or spraying whipped cream on her hair—while inwardly Ezra wanted to participate in something like that to make up for the turkey boxer incident that morning. Ella's humiliating stories just weren't enough.

As Ella and Zack said their good-byes, they followed each other out the door and to their designated cars. Aria hadn't even flinched; sometimes she slept like the dead. Mike excused himself and so did Byron (probably leaving behind a hidden camera as he did so), prompting Ezra to wake Aria up.

"Aria, it's time for me to go," he whispered. He had to bite his tongue when he saw how messy her hair had become, sticking up in all directions.

"What?" she moaned. "But it's only eight."

"That was three hours ago," Ezra broke the news to her.

"Oh." Confused, she blinked. "Wow."

Wrapping the blanket around her shoulders, Ezra squeezed past her and got up, grateful he could feel his legs again. Slowly Aria got up on her feet too and smoothed out her hair. Her large, hazel eyes bore into his. "I don't want you to leave," she pouted.

"Me neither," Ezra spoke the truth. "But it's not like I won't see you tomorrow. Black Friday shopping, right?"

"Yeah, but…" She grabbed his hand. "I'd rather have you stay."

Reluctantly Aria escorted him to the door, and a serious look crossed Ezra's face. "You know, we didn't say what we were grateful for this year."

"Oh yeah?" Aria leaned against the doorframe and wrapped her arms around her as the wind whipped around outside. "And what would that be?"

"Take a guess." He brushed aside a loose strand of her and tilted her chin up so that he could kiss her for the first time that night. It was something he was longing to do but wasn't sure if it was going too far around her sensitive family.

One kiss wasn't enough, though, and Aria initiated a second one that was just as soft, but a bit more passionate. Ezra, seeing her shiver, wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. When she pulled away, she pressed her forehead onto his and whispered, "You're not the only one who's grateful for someone this year."

Both of their faces were shadowed by the yellow porch light, yet their eyes were bright and soulful. Unbeknownst to them, they were also grateful that they were able to experience the joys, thrills, and passions of young love.

"Happy Thanksgiving, Aria," Ezra said, and a warm smile spread over Aria's face, which was tinted from the cold.

"And to many more to come."


End file.
